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Pig Faced Coward And Masked Executioner of Western Journalist Steven Sotloff,
Video Taken In The Very Desert Where He Was Killed. |
Excerpt from an article in
The New York Times:"The
videos deliver in miniature the same chilling message as the footage of
the towers falling 13 years ago: Everything has changed, no one is safe
and the United States is impotent against true believers. It is a memo
from a foe that has everything to gain by goading America into a fight
in a faraway land where its enemies are legion. The tactic worked back
then.
And while the videos convey barbarism on an elemental level, dismissing them as crude or one-dimensional would be wrong. The
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,
known as ISIS, clearly has a sophisticated production unit, with good
cameras, technically proficient operators and editors who have access to
all the best tools.
What
they made are modern media artifacts being used to medieval ends. The
videos serve as both propaganda and time machine, attempting to wipe
away centuries of civilization and suggest that the dreamed-of caliphate
flourishes and blood is cheap currency.
The real warriors in those videos are the journalists who were killed,
James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were trying to do a terrible,
dangerous job when they were grabbed opportunistically in Syria.
Innocent people end up tragically caught in the crossfire of war, but
the targeting of journalists who provide witness for the rest of us is
particularly appalling to people in the news business."
The article then goes on:
"The real warriors in those videos are the journalists who were killed,
James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were trying to do a terrible,
dangerous job when they were grabbed opportunistically in Syria.
Innocent people end up tragically caught in the crossfire of war, but
the targeting of journalists who provide witness for the rest of us is
particularly appalling to people in the news business".
Followed by:
"We
are then in a desert, the horizon carefully situated at the midpoint of
a two-camera shoot. There is thought put into the wardrobe selection;
the victim is dressed in an iconic orange jumpsuit — a reference to
detainees in American custody — and the killer costumed more as a ninja
than a jihadist, all in black and his face obscured, holding a small
knife and holster.
The actual murder is performed in the unflinching sunlight of the desert. (I thought more than once of the
brutally clear morning
of Sept. 11, 2001.) Because sound is difficult to capture on a windy
expanse of arid land, the victim is wearing a lapel mike. Mr. Sotloff
introduces himself in sober tones and begins to read a scripted
statement off what seems to be a teleprompter.
The
executioner is cocky and ruthless, seemingly eager to get to the task
at hand. When he does attack his bound victim, only the beginning is
shown and then there is a fade to black. Once the picture returns, the
head of the victim is carefully arranged on the body, all the violence
of the act displayed in a bloody tableau. There is another cutaway, and
the next potential victim is shown with a warning that he may be next."
Then:
“For the guys who signed up for ISIS — including, especially, the masked
man with the English accent who wielded the knife — killing is the real
point of being there,” he wrote."
The author of the article concludes it by stating this:
"We don’t want to look, but some of us do and the rest of us talk about
it. ISIS seems to understand that the same forces that carried the
Ice Bucket Challenge’s message of uplift — the desire to be part of something, to be in the know — can be used to spread fear and terror as well."
Well said and Social Media such as Facebook, youtube and Twitter needs to ban content like this post haste,and people that see it in videos need to report it ASAP as well.
Read the entire article here:
The New York Times
